1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image inputting apparatus, and more particularly to a switch mechanism to indicate a start of image inputting.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, the requirements of reliability and safety to the management and the protection of personal information or business information, or to the security thereof such as the prevention of crimes, have socially risen, and person authentication has been recognized as a very important subject. In order to meet the rise of such a social requirement, the technology developments of the person authentication using biological information, such as a fingerprint, an iris, or a vein, have been actively performed.
In order to take the biological information into a person authentication system, various sensors have been developed. As the sensors, there are optical, electrical capacitance, electric field, thermal, pressure sensitive, ultrasonic, and the other sensors. The surface or internal morphology of a testing object (for example, a finger) that touches the contact surface of a sensor is taken in as an image by the sensor, and the take image is used as biological information to be collated by the person authentication system.
In order to suppress the power consumption of the sensor, the sensing operation of the sensor is performed only when the testing object touches the sensor. To put it concretely, a push switch is provided on the lower side of the sensor, and an output signal of the push switch operates as a trigger to start the operation of the sensor when the sensor is pushed down by the testing object and the push switch is pushed (see, a first patent document: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-57328).
Now, the technique disclosed in the first patent document disposes a leaf spring 15 urging a sensor device 2 upward in a space between the sensor device 2 and a contact connection switch 18, and allows the leaf spring to touch the contact connection switch against the urging force thereof to conduct only when the sensor device is pushed in by the testing object. Thus, a sensing operation is performed. However, in the technique, the leaf spring is bent upward at the time of non-sensing operation (see FIG. 1 of the first patent document). Even if the leaf spring receives depressing force by the testing object at the time of a sensing operation, the leaf spring is not always surely flattened to touch the contact connection switch to conduct (see FIG. 3 of the first patent document).
Furthermore, if the sensor is further pushed in while the push switch is pushed by the sensor, then the sensor is bent in the state of being supported by the push switch. Consequently, there is the possibility of the damage of the sensor. Accordingly, the present applicant has zealously performed research and development, and suppressed the damage of the sensor by attaining the improvement of the strength of the sensor. But it is still desired to reduce the probability of occurrence of the damage of the sensor furthermore.